Tag: David Mackintosh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-03-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what statistics his Department holds on the nationality of people who are sleeping rough.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Department does not require local authorities to submit data on the nationality of rough sleepers. However information on the nationality of rough sleepers in London, collected by the Combined Homelessness and Information Network, is shown in the Department’s annual rough sleeping statistical release which is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/503015/Rough_Sleeping_Autumn_2015_statistical_release.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that users of the rail network are aware of the compensation schemes available to them when their trains are delayed or cancelled.

Claire Perry

I welcome the publication of the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR’s) recommendations in March this year following Which?’s super-complaint into passenger compensation. It is vital that customers who suffer delays or cancellations understand their rights to compensation and have access to it in a timely way. Industry must now do much more to make the process quick and user-friendly. We are already working with the Association of Train Operating Companies and the ORR to bring about improvements, and my Department will respond to the ORR’s report in the summer of 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what resources her Department allocated to local authorities and the emergency services in Northamptonshire to develop their capacity to deal with flash floods in each of the last three years.

Rory Stewart

The Government provides funding to Lead Local Flood Authorities to carry out their duties in relation to managing and co-ordinating local flood risk under the Flood and Water Management Act. Local flood risk includes surface water run off. However, local authorities decide what to spend according to local priorities.

For the past three years this funding has been provided through two mechanisms i.e. direct grant from Defra via the Local Services Support Grant and from the Department for Communities and Local Government through the Local Government Finance Settlement. The total funding provided to Northamptonshire County Council in the last three years for their role as a Lead Local Flood Authority was:

• 2013/14 £290,000
• 2014/15 £288,000
• 2015/16 £241,000

Of this, the funding provided directly by Defra was:

• 2013/14 £140,000
• 2014/15 £140,000
• 2015/16 £93,000

This Department does not fund the work of the emergency services.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make representations to the Office for National Statistics on including a separate ethnicity box for Sikh in the (a) 2021 census and (b) 2017 test questionnaire.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-06-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that computer coding is taught to children from an early stage in their education.

Nick Gibb

Demand for high-level skills in computing will only grow in the years ahead and will be crucial to supporting a successful economy. It is essential that we have a generation of pupils who have the knowledge and understanding they need to become active creators of digital technology, and not just passive consumers of it. We want them to have a deeper understanding of how digital technologies work and be able to write computer programs.

Since 2014, computing has been part of the National Curriculum at all four key stages. This replaced the outdated Information and Communications Technology (ICT) programme of study. The computing curriculum focuses on teaching children how computers work, the basics of programming, and encourages them to design computer programs to address real world problems. This includes introducing coding to primary pupils. At primary school, pupils are being taught what algorithms are, how to design and write programs to accomplish specific goals using sequencing, selection and repetition and how to apply logical reasoning to detect and correct errors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will add pulmonary arterial hypertension to the conditions which are exempt from prescription charges.

Alistair Burt

There are no plans to change the list of medical conditions which provide exemption from prescription charges.

Other extensive exemption arrangements are in place, in England, including those based on low income, which support those who cannot afford to pay for their prescriptions. For those who need multiple prescriptions and do not qualify for exemption, Prescription Prepayment Certificates (PPC) can be purchased, which allow someone to claim as many prescriptions as needed. A 12 month PPC costs £104 and benefits anyone who needs 13 or more prescriptions a year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-03-18.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of individual voter registration.

John Penrose

The transition to IER is now complete and has been a great success. Over 14 million applications have been made to register since the introduction of IER, almost three quarters of them online. Ghost entries have been removed, which means the electoral registers are more accurate and less vulnerable to fraud than before. The Electoral Commission is expected to publish its assessment of the completeness and accuracy of the first full electoral registers under IER, published in December 2015, this summer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what procedures his Department has to ensure that housing associations maintain an adequate level of housing stock available for key workers.

Brandon Lewis

Housing associations have ambitious plans to increase their housing stock over the next few years. The Government is supporting this with £8 billion of funding to deliver over 400,000 affordable homes. This will extend the opportunity of home ownership to more hard working families, including key workers, through measures aimed at doubling the number of first time buyers. The funding prospectus for the new Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme was published on Wednesday 13 April.

The voluntary Right to Buy between the Government and the housing association sector will give another 1.3 million families the chance to purchase a home at Right to Buy level discounts. Homes sold to tenants under this agreement will be replaced on a one for one basis using the proceeds from the sale of the property.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent research her Department has conducted on the potential merits of wave-generated power.

Andrea Leadsom

The Scottish Government set up Wave Energy Scotland in December 2014 to take the development of the technology forward. DECC provides assistance as required.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of metro-mayors since May 2015.

James Wharton

The Government considers that, where areas choose to introduce a directly-elected, region-wide Mayor as part of a devolution deal, this will provide a mechanism to strengthen local accountability and strategic leadership and drive local economic growth. No region-wide elected Mayors are yet in place under the provisions of the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act; the first elections for the new Mayors are being planned for May 2017, subject to Parliamentary approval.